Blogging about life at a Benedictine monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Generous Listening

(Photo by Martha Maloney)

Krista Tippett, interviewer for public radio’s On Being has
been asking provocative questions of her guests over the years. Her concept of
generous listening described in her recent book, Becoming Wise, keeps
lingering with me.There seems to be a deep desire rising in many
of us to connect with persons on the margins of our everyday experiences… culturally,
politically and in our dreaming.Currently our monastery campus is hosting, “Circles of Understanding”
between our local Somali neighbors and interested people.Krista Tippett’s invitation to generous
listening seems to describe exactly the qualities that might allow us to create
an enhanced sense of somehow belonging to one another. She says, “Generous listening is powered by curiosity, a virtue we
can invite and nurture in ourselves to render it instinctive. It involves a
kind of vulnerability - a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions
and take in ambiguity. The listener wants to understand the humanity behind the
words of the other, and patiently summons one's own best self and one's own
best words and questions.”

Each of us together is gradually finding ways
to enhance our sense of belonging to those who once were strangers.Their stories can teach us about their unique
world and our common threads.According
to Padraig O’Tuama, a poet, storyteller and theologian, “Creating a sense of
belonging both creates and undoes us.”In this “belonging process,” who knows what careful questioning and wise
language we may be learning?

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This blog is maintained by a group of Sisters at Saint Benedict's Monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota. We try to post weekly and often succeed at that.
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